


Kitten Fluff

by Genie_of_the_Fourth_Wall



Category: Hatoful Kareshi | Hatoful Boyfriend
Genre: Cats, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Hatoful Boyfriend Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-06 08:43:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17342222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Genie_of_the_Fourth_Wall/pseuds/Genie_of_the_Fourth_Wall
Summary: My gift to divineshark for the 2018 Hatoful Secret Santa!Nageki finds a kitten on the way back from school, and decides to take her home with him.





	Kitten Fluff

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DivineShark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DivineShark/gifts).



It was a dreary winter day. One of those days where the conditions were just not right for snow, so instead the clouds released rain that would chill any bird to the bone. It was on that dreary winter day, in the chilling rain, that Nageki was slowly making his way home from school. He knew Hitori would fuss over how long it took him to get home because he’d “catch his death out there” and so on and so forth, but he didn’t necessarily feel like making a mad dash to shelter. He just moved along at his own pace. The cold rain may have been uncomfortable, but Nageki liked to take in his surroundings. The misty tree tops, the scent of rain, the quiet mewling in the gutter...

Wait, what?

Nageki crouched down to look in the nearby storm gutter. Sure enough, there was a tiny kitten hiding away. She was skinny and shivering, and she was all alone. No mother, not even any littermates. Just a single lone kitten. Nageki felt sorry for the poor thing. He reached out his wing to her.

“Hey, it’s okay. I won’t hurt you.”

The kitten hung back, her ears pressed down against her head. Nageki tried to think of a way he could coax her out.

“Ah, of course!”

Nageki dug through his school bag, trying to find something buried under all of his books and notes. He finally pulled out a pack of jerky. Hiyoko had given it to him when he made an off-hand comment about forgetting to eat one time. She insisted he take it, even when he pointed out that he didn’t really eat meat. Brushing off those memories, Nageki opened the package and pulled out a small piece of the dried meat. He held it out to the kitten. She hesitantly approached, taking a moment to sniff the new object before ravenously eating the piece of jerky.

“You must be hungry, huh?” Nageki spoke softly.

He gave the kitten another piece of jerky before scooping her up in his wing. She didn’t protest, and huddled into the warmth of his feathers. Nageki quickly made his way home with his new friend.

* * *

 

When Nageki got home, he was surprised to find that Hitori wasn’t home yet. Just Kazuaki, who was wrapped in a blanket on the couch, watching some random romantic-comedy anime.

“I’m home,” Nageki announced.

“Oh! Nageki! Welcome home!” Kazuaki said, fumbling to pause his show.

“Why isn’t Hitori home yet?”

“O-oh, yeah, something came up last minute. Iwamine needed to go out-of-town on for a medical conference this evening, and the school was kinda worried to send him off on his own after the shrine incident a couple weeks back. I mean, they didn’t say that, of course, but it was implied. So they made Uzune go with him.”

“...What?”

“D-don’t worry! He’ll be back before tomorrow! He’s just gonna be gone... this whole evening...”

Kazuaki seemed depressed at that thought. Nageki chose to drop the topic before things spiraled down further. Instead, he set down his stuff and walked towards the couch.

“I found this on the way home...” He opened up his wing, revealing the kitten to Kazuaki. The quail stared at her in shock.

“Oh my! A-a cat?!”

“Yeah. I found her in a gutter. She was all alone, and she looked hungry, so...”

Kazuaki reached forward to pet the kitten. She squirmed out of his reach.

“Wehh! She doesn’t like me!” Kazuaki cried.

“It’s not that. She’s probably still scared. Once you give her some food, she’ll warm right up.”

“Oh...”

“So... what should we do with her?” Nageki asked.

“Well, I think we’re supposed to take her to the vet as soon as possible. After that, well... oh, she’s so cute, but I’m not sure if Uzune would like us adopting a cat without asking him first...”

“I... want to keep her, if we can,” Nageki murmured. He had taken a liking to the kitten.

“Oh... um, maybe you shouldn’t let Uzune know? Just until I can figure out how to tell him and all. I wouldn’t want to, um, have to give her up.”

Nageki sighed. He knew it would take Kazuaki forever to get around to telling Hitori, but he also knew trying to argue would just upset the quail. He could deal with that later. For now, they had to get their new pet checked out.

The vet confirmed that the kitten was a female, about 8 weeks old. Examinations showed she was surprisingly healthy. She was a bit malnourished, but she had managed to not catch any diseases that would require treatment (Kazuaki sighed with relief, knowing how expensive medicine would be). After a bath, her fur was revealed to be a light gray. Kazuaki and Nageki picked up some supplies from the local pet store before bringing her back to their apartment. They set her up in Nageki’s room, since Hitori knew Nageki didn’t like him poking around in there anyway. She was cautious, but she seemed to take to her new home well enough. After going back and forth for a bit (Kazuaki _really_ wanted to name her Princess), the birds finally settled on the name Hoshi. Hoshi still seemed to favor Nageki to Kazuaki, much to the latter’s disappointment. Regardless, after all of the excitement of the day, everybody settled down to sleep.

* * *

 

Nageki woke up to the sound of Hitori making breakfast and a warm ball curled up next to him. Hoshi was peacefully sleeping next to him. Nageki did his best to wiggle out from beneath the covers without disturbing the cat, but he didn’t do a very good job. Hoshi sleepily blinked at him, let out a yawn, and jumped off the bed. She walked over to her food bowl and meowed at Nageki expectantly.

“Okay, I’ll get you some food. Just be quiet, okay?” Nageki said softly.

Nageki emptied a can of wet food into Hoshi’s bowl, and she quickly got to work eating. Nageki left the room to get his own breakfast. Kazuaki was up too, groggily eating the food Hitori had prepared.

“Ah, good morning, Nageki. I was just about to go wake you up,” Hitori said.

“Good morning, Hitori,” Nageki replied, taking a seat.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Kazuaki, I wanted to ask you something. Why is there a bag of cat food in the cupboard?” Hitori asked.

“W-What?!” Kazuaki startled awake.

“Yeah, cat food. Do you know anything about that?” Hitori calmly repeated.

“Oh! I, uh, well... Obviously, the cat food is to feed cats. I, uh, wanted to... um... feed the stray cats in the alley behind the apartment! Yeah! That’s why... the cat food... in fact, I should, um, probably go do that now!” Kazuaki stammered. He grabbed the cat food out of the cupboard and rushed out of the apartment.

Hitori shook his head. “So, when were you two going to tell me you got a cat?” Hitori asked Nageki.

“Well, that didn’t take long. How’d you know?” Nageki said.

“I heard some scratching and meowing coming from your room. With the cat food, it didn’t take much to put two and two together.”

“Sorry, Kazuaki wanted to tell you himself. He’s worried you won’t let us keep her.”

Hitori sighed. “He still worries so much, doesn’t he? Thank you for being patient with him. Don’t worry, I think you’re responsible enough for a pet. As long as you take care of her, you can keep her. Oh, and don’t worry about Kazuaki. I’ll sort everything out.”

“Thank you, Hitori.” Nageki smiled.

“Anything for you. Both of you.” Hitori smiled back. “Oh, is this her?”

Nageki looked down to see Hoshi butting her head against his leg. He chuckled.

“Yeah, meet Hoshi.”


End file.
